BIOSKETCH OF MARY BELL/E LATTA (23 May 1874 - 30 Jun 1950)

By Betty Latta Kitchen

     The Henry G. Morris family Bible gives her year of birth as 1874. In 1904, she was living in Miltonsburg, Ohio. She continued living in the home of her parents after their death until her age and health forced her to move.  Aunt Jan (Latta) said she had auburn hair, brown with red overtones.

     We have a very interesting document related to Mary Bell. It is the original of a newspaper article probably published in the Spirit of Democracy.  We think it was Mary's 20th or 2lst birthday, 1895, because when it mentions all in attendance it includes Mr. and Mrs. T. L. Latta, and that couple was married in October, 1894. It also includes Miss Lou Latta so her sister was not yet married and neither was her cousin Anna Latta who married in l897. I mailed the article to the Monroe County Chapter of the Ohio Genealogical Society and they published it in its entirety in their July, l999, issue of The Navigator. We also have her autograph book with some of the same names as at the party.

     We have copies of the documents signed by her brothers and sister following the death of her mother giving her their share of the Latta homestead for $1 each in quit claim deeds. They were all dated between 1915 and 1917. Other documents include cemetery deeds and oil and gas right of ways. We have post cards that she gave her mother for all the holidays. She signed her name on some as Mary B. and some as Mary Belle.

     This is the gist of a story told to me and my husband Don by Frank Christman when we were visiting with him, his wife, and son John on October 12, 1997. Frank and his wife moved into the home in 1946 and grant access to the Latta homestead adjacent to them on Miltonsburg Road in Monroe County. Our neighbor in Twinsburg, Oscar Kress, says he was born in 1925 and grew up with Frank so I figure this story took place about 1938-1940. Aunt Mary Bell was no longer living there when the Christmans moved into the dairy farm in 1946. During the time my grandfather lived there the property was owned by the Harens, and the Christmans lived down the road.

     Frank and his older brother Vernon had been practicing with their 22's, and now that they were teenagers they figured they were getting pretty darn good. So one day they decided to challenge that old lady who lived up the "holler."  Everyone talked about how good a shot she was. (Oscar said nobody messed around her place, that he was afraid to hunt on her property.) So Vernon and Frank hike up the "holler" to show her a thing or two. Mary Bell said okay, she'd do some shooting with them. Vernon hammered a nail into a tree, and they stepped off 50 paces. Vernon shot first. His shot barely missed the nailhead, a little to the right. Frank's next. His shot is close, but a little to the left. The only one still to shoot was Mary Bell. She took aim and hit that nail right on the head. She went back into her cabin, and the boys hung their heads in shame as they traipsed back down the "holler. " How could that old lady have beaten them? 

     Frank also said she had beautiful flowers all around her place.

Provided by Betty Latta Kitchen e-mail: Betty Kitchen

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